Christmas 2021: KFC's busiest day in Japan is Christmas eve. Deets inside

Christmas 2021: Dating back to the 1970, KFC has always seen the busiest day in their outlets in Japan on Christmas eve. They usually see rough 10 times more customers than normal every year and the numbers are ever-evolving.

Christmas 2021: KFC – the biggest fast-food joint of America is riddled with traditions of the Japanese culture, and hence, when the Christmas eve arrives, it is a yearly family tradition for people in Japan to head out to grab their Christmas eve-special meals from the food joint.

Christmas eve is celebrated with a whole lot of grandeur and pomp all over Japan. And in the middle of it all, it is the practice of going out in the evening with family to the nearest KFC outlet and having a hearty meal that everyone looks forward to.

Dating back to the 1970, KFC has always seen the busiest day in their outlets in Japan on Christmas eve. They usually see rough 10 times more customers than normal every year and the numbers are ever-evolving.

With only one percent of the entire population in Japan believing in Christianity, Christmas celebrations are a big deal in the country. With time, the people of Japan have given their own twist to the festive celebrations. Besides the meals from KFC, baking a strawberry cake and having a romantic date with the special one also marks a way of celebrating the holiday season.

However, the original story of how the Japanese people started to grow the fondness for the crispy chicken has multiple versions. It is believed that Takeshi Okawara, the first manager of the KFC outlet in Japan, marketed the chicken as a traditional American Christmas dish, quite untruthfully. He later served as the CEO of KFC Japan. Another version of the story goes that a delivery person once put on a Santa Claus outfit and made a rather great impression on a group of kindergarten students. Later KFC outlets started pouring in with orders from other schools, making the food joint market their products for Christmas.

In 1974, a KFC sales team member overheard a customer complaining about the unavailability of turkey and hence having to settle with chicken. Thus the 'Kentucky for Christmas' campaign was born where a bottle of wine was served with the holiday meal to get the celebrations going.

The special holiday meal, as offered by KFC, is always being worked on. It usually comes with " chicken that’s hand prepared and stuffed with cheese and mushrooms, baked fresh in the restaurant.” While people waited in long queues in front of the KFC outlets to place their order before, after the pandemic struck, the KFC Japan has initiated online orders where the customers are provided with a pick-up time when they can come to the food joint and take their order.